The huge increase in loan guarantees occurred almost overnight, as the agency rushed to approve loans on the hurry-up timetable of the stimulus program, whose broader goal was to give a rapid boost to the economy.
That legislation would make permanent the temporary increase in deposits guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to $250,000 from $100,000.
A second provision would make permanent the temporary increase in deposits guaranteed by the F.D.I.C., to $250,000, from $100,000.
Helping to defray the cost was $36 billion generated through an increase in mortgage guarantee fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Since 2011, any increase in the guarantee fees the companies receive when backing a mortgage goes to the Treasury, not to repay taxpayers.
Keith T. Gumbinger, a vice president of HSH Associates, a financial publisher in Pompton Plains, N.J., says the increase in the guarantee fee will very likely push up mortgage rates on new loans by one-eighth of a percentage point.
On July 30th, Mr Mahuad had to veto a government bill strengthening the banking regulator, after Congress had amended it to include a cap on interest rates and an increase in deposit-guarantee cover.After some fumbling, Mr Mahuad is trying to clean up the banks, most of whose deposits have been frozen since March.
Plus, there were all sorts of other bailout programs the Treasury report didn't include in its estimates, such as increases in mortgage guarantees by the U.S. Federal Housing Administration.
Seeking to buoy a strained rural economy in the midst of the recession, Congress ordered up a huge increase in federal mortgage guarantees for small-town home buyers as part of the 2009 economic stimulus package.
And in the 2011 budget the administration called for a three-fold increase in federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants, from the $18.5 billion that Congress has already approved to $54.5 billion.
